Rene DeLaCova, 44, a Drug Enforcement Administration group supervisor in Fort Lauderdale, resigned last week after admitting to investigators that he took the money from a suspected drug trafficker during an operation in which agents posed as money launderers.

DeLaCova, a former Margate police officer, could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

No other agents were implicated in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Butler said.

"This is the end of a very sad chapter for us. It is always not a pleasant time when one has to investigate and arrest one of its own, but we have to do it," said DEA spokesman James Shedd in Miami.

Prosecutors said DeLaCova has admitted that during an undercover money laundering investigation on July 17, he took $700,000 from a suspected drug trafficker, prosecutors said.

He later transferred much of the money into safe deposit boxes at two banks in Broward County and a bank in San Diego, officials said. He also opened money market and mutual fund accounts in his and his wife's name.

The investigation of DeLaCova began in late October after a San Diego bank became suspicious and notified the Internal Revenue Service that DeLaCova had deposited $25,000 into an account in a series of small transactions within one week, federal officials said.

Under the terms of his plea agreement, DeLaCova agreed to resign, repay the $700,000, and fully disclose to investigators his involvement in the corruption.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend to U.S. District Judge Donald Graham that DeLaCova serve two years in prison. They also agreed to recommend that he not pay any fine.

Sentencing is set for March 18 before Graham in federal court in Miami.

After his guilty plea, DeLaCova was released on a $50,000 personal surety bond.

DeLaCova's wife, Theresa, a nine-year DEA veteran, also resigned from the agency, prosecutors said. Her attorney, Daniel Forman, said she was forced to resign because the DEA would not want an agent with a spouse in federal prison.

The government's investigation concluded that DeLaCova acted alone in taking the funds, prosecutors said. But the investigation never resolved to what extent his wife may have become aware of the influx of money into joint bank accounts and mutual funds opened by her husband after he stole the $700,000, officials said.

The plea agreement says that if DeLaCova fails to abide by the terms of the plea bargain, his wife "may" be prosecuted.

Forman said his client had no knowledge of her husband's illicit dealings: "I think she is a victim of her husband's malfeasance."

The DeLaCovas could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

DeLaCova is the 11th DEA agent convicted of a drug-related offense in the past 10 years, said DEA spokesman Bill Ruzzamenti. He is only the second DEA supervisor to be convicted in the past decade. Overall, the agency employs 3,600 agents.

The DEA said DeLaCova was its top agent in Panama in 1989 when U.S. troops invaded the country, toppling Noriega. Noriega was arrested on U.S. drugtrafficking and racketeering charges, and later convicted.